surrender. Lee still declined, and continued his retreat. Then
Sheridan threw his powerful division of cavalry in front of the
Confederates, and Lee decided to cut his way through the ring of
bayonets and sabres by which he was environed. This desperate task was
assigned to the indomitable Gordon. He made a resistless beginning, when
he saw the impossibility of success. The news was sent to Lee, who
realized at last that all hope was gone. He forwarded a note to Grant,
asking for a suspension of hostilities with a view to surrender. The two
generals met at the house of Major McLean, in the hamlet of Appomattox
Court-House, on the 9th of April, where Lee surrendered all that
remained of the Confederate army, which for nearly four years had beaten
back every attempt to capture Richmond.

Grant's terms as usual were generous. He did not ask for Lee's sword,
and demanded only that he and his men should agree not to bear arms
again against the government of the United States. They were to
surrender all public property, but Grant told them to keep their horses,
"as you will need them for your spring ploughing." The soldiers who had
fought each other so long and so fiercely fraternized like brothers,
exchanged grim jests over the terrible past, and pledged future
friendship. The reunion between the officers was equally striking. Most
of them were old acquaintances, and all rejoiced that the war was at
last ended. General Lee rode with his cavalry escort to his home in
Richmond and rejoined his family. He was treated with respect by the
Union troops, who could not restrain a feeling of sympathy for their
fallen but magnanimous enemy.

ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

The bonfires in the North had hardly died out and the echoes of the glad
bells were still lingering in the air, when the whole country was
startled by one of the most horrifying events in all history. President
Lincoln, on the night of April 14th, was sitting in a box at Ford's
Theatre in Washington, accompanied by his wife and another lady and
gentleman, when, at a little past ten o'clock, John Wilkes Booth, an
actor, stealthily entered the box from the rear, and, without any one
suspecting his awful purpose, fired a pistol-bullet into the President's
brain. The latter's head sank, and he never recovered consciousness.

Booth, after firing the shot, leaped upon the stage from the box,
brandished a dagger, shouted _"Sic semper tyrannis!"_ and, before the